Mistletoe And Crime
by littlesheep
Summary: It's Christmas Eve in New York City and there are a lot of surprises for everyone COMPLETE now Sequel will follow soon. SMacked of course! [StellaMac]
1. Chapter 1

Okay, I promised the next one would be up soon – and here it is.

The story features the song "White White Christmas", written and performed by one of my absolute favorites, Jane Comerford (Australian singer, songwriter, vocal coach – and lead singer of the German country band Texas Lightning). If you get the chance, listen to it, it's really beautiful :-)

This is a nice little Christmas story, a little fluffy in the end "maybe".

Disclaimer: All the original characters belong to their owners - except for Mac. Mac belongs to Stella.

Please read and review – updates on request ;-)

Chapter 1

It was Christmas Eve and raw winter weather controlled New York City. The usual traffic chaos in the streets was multiplied, masses of disoriented tourists, countless fundraisers and guys in more or less stupid Christmas costumes crowded the sidewalks and stores.

Stella silently cursed while she stepped out of the elevator. She loved the Christmas time and its spirit, but working at this time of the year was a real pain. Once again she asked herself why it was always her who had to work on Christmas, once again she thought about talking to Mac about it. And once again she knew she wouldn't do it.

Besides, it wasn't as if anyone would be waiting for her at home. But to say she was delighted when Mac called her an hour before her alarm clock would have woken her up would have been too much.

"Morning!" the man in question greeted her friendlily when she entered his office.

"Coffee," she replied without looking at him and took a seat in the chair at the other side of his desk.

"Is there a life before coffee?" he solicitously asked while pouring a mug for her.

Stella grumbled.

"This city is crazy. New York under normal conditions is already tough enough. New York in summer – no talking about that. But New York at Christmas??" She rolled her eyes and took a large sip of her coffee.

Mac's coffee was definitely the best, the only reason she had headed straight for his office instead of going to the break room first. Her heart made a little caper when she noticed that he had put on the lights of the little tree which she had placed on his desk the night before.

"Don't like Christmas?" he smiled, knowing very well that she did.

They had had long discussions about Christmas decoration at the lab and in the offices, something he considered as totally unnecessary while she would always try to convince him it would make him happy and lighten up the atmosphere.

And when he had arrived early this morning, he had found this little Christmas tree on his desk. Only about 1.5 feet high, but completely decorated with glitter balls, tinsel and even real fairy lights. He had to admit it made the room a lot friendlier and brought in some Christmas spirit.

This was what Christmas was about for him – giving and sharing with people you loved. So right after he had called Stella to come in earlier this morning, he went out again to pick up a special gift he had ordered for her.

"Sure I do. Nothing's better than this silent, contemplative, relaxing…"

Mac's phone started ringing at the same time that his beeper went off. Before Stella could react on that, her own beeper also called for attention.

"…time," she finished her sentence and reached for her beeper. Mac also reached for his one while he picked up the phone with the other hand.

XXXXX

"Anything important?" he asked her after he had finished his call.

"No, just some test results. So, why am I here so early?" she replied, now in a much better mood with enough coffee in her system.

"Lindsay and Hawkes are investigating a burglary at a record company with a possible homicide, Flack called half an hour ago, they already left. And I have a meeting with the Chief later and some other things to do, I can't get out now…" Mac explained.

"And…? You want me to baby-sit them or what?" Stella tried to figure out what this had to do with her having to come in earlier.

"You…" Mac carefully searched for the right words, "You and Danny will investigate the disappearance of a street musician. His girlfriend reported him missing. The instruments had been knocked over and she said there was blood. You can meet her at the corner 57th and Broadway, that's all we know for now. Except that…"

"Don't tell me he's one of these Bongo playing Santas…" Stella shot him a suspicious look.

"… he's dressed as Santa Claus," Mac couldn't stop the sentence he had started in time.

"Great. Find a missing Santa on December 24 during rush hour in the heart of New York City. That's what I call a challenge. DANNY!" she called, already on her way through the door.

XXXXX

Mac smiled while he looked after her. He leaned over and opened his desk drawer. Carefully he took a little box out and opened it. A little angel figure was inside - a very special one. It had been impossible to find an angel with dark instead of blond curls, so finally he had to have it custom made. It had green eyes and a beautiful smile, which was why it had reminded him of her right away.

Still smiling, he put the little figure back in its box and carefully locked the drawer. It wasn't necessary that anyone saw it except for the person it was meant for. He would give it to her later, hoping they would find a quiet moment to sit down, have something to drink, talk…

With a sigh he pulled himself off these thoughts and tried to focus on the things he had to do.

_Christmas is coming just around the bend  
I wish those jingle bells would never end  
I know that it's true  
I wanna spend this Christmas with you  
_

_  
_XXXXX

"I'll drive!" Stella exclaimed while she headed through the parking garage, followed by Danny who just shrugged. In this mood it was better not to object, he knew that only too well.

And the mood didn't get much better after they had interviewed Sally Myers, the girlfriend of the missing Santa. She was dressed in some sort of elf costume, her blonde hair in little curls like these little angel dolls. She was very upset and excited, Stella would describe her as typically blonde and naïve. And certainly hyperactive or even hysterical.

"This is just ridiculous… Maybe the guy had enough of this stupid stuff? Maybe he just went off for a drink? Maybe he took off with the money they made? Maybe he just said 'I'll just go and 'buy cigarettes' and she believed it and wonders now why he isn't coming back…" she grumbled while she tried to maneuver the car through the endless traffic on their way back to the lab.

"And the blood?" Danny took advantage of the fact that Stella had to focus on the traffic and started to argue.

"Blood?? Oh yeah, sure. You mean the little smear on top of the Bongo drum? The one that you could hardly see? Geez, maybe he cut his finger – no wait, there would have been more blood in that case…"

"First of all: What if this is not just a runaway? Maybe some other musicians kidnapped him! You have any idea, how much a corner like that is worth these days? They can make thousands a week! And second of all: …"

"First of all: There is no 'second of all'," Stella snapped. "It's secondLY."

"We talk about a missing person – maybe some sort of 'turf war' between street musicians - and you are correcting my grammar?!?" Danny exclaimed.

"A conspiracy? Great…" Stella was about to hit the wheel with her forehead until she figured that wouldn't be such a good plan in the middle of New York's most congested road.

"He left his aura behind… He wouldn't have left without telling me – we are SO close. We were brother and sister in three former incarnations…" she fluted, repeating only a part of what Sally Myers had told them.

"This IS ridiculous!" she finally stated once again.

XXXXX

"Ridiculous…" Stella mumbled yet another time while she entered the lab, followed by Danny. "This is ridiculous. Okay then… place the 'evidence' that we collected at the 'scene' on the table and let's start 'processing'…"

The sound of her voice made more than clear what she thought about the whole thing.

XXXXX

_Beep beep beep…_

"Thanks!"

Stella sighed in relief when her beeper interrupted her slightly aimless search for evidence for a crime among the things on the table. After a look at the display, her mood changed.

"Ah NO! Gimme a break…" she sighed.

"What's up?" Danny asked from the other side of the table, looking up behind his microscope.

"We have a visitor…"

"Santa Claus?" Danny tried to joke, realizing the moment the words left his mouth that THIS was not the right one for this moment.

"No… Actually it's rather Mrs. Claus," Stella replied with another deep sigh. "Sally Myers wants to see us, she's in the interrogation room…"

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks everyone for the reviews! The Cowboy… yeah well, since he's not in the story, you could actually say he DID disappear – just nobody reported him missing yet ;-)

Here's chapter 2 – hope you like it. You have to be a little patient, the "fluffy" stuff is mainly at the end of the story, I just couldn't split the case-related stuff (mostly this chapter). But: I can already promise that there will be a sequel to this story with more fluff and romance because this story didn't get enough of it for my taste, so I decided to go for another one that will be posted after this.

Please read and review, thanks!

Chapter 2

"I only left him for a few minutes, just went around the corner to get some food and when I came back…" Stella heard the excited, high-pitched voice of Sally Myers while she and Danny approached the interrogation room, "… he was GONE!" Sally sniffed.

Mac turned around in relief when he heard the opening of the door.

"Detective Bonasera will take your statement, Miss Myers. Tell her everything you know, we will find your friend, okay?" He smiled at her and nodded to Stella on his way out.

'_YOU owe me…'_ Stella emphatically whispered in his ear when he passed her.

_And when we'll see the reindeer pull their sleigh  
We know that Santa Claus is on his way  
And happiness starts  
The love of Christmas here in our heart_

XXXXX

"Miss Myers…" she turned to Sally while she took a seat at the table, Danny next to her, and tried to keep a neutral tone in her voice.

"Tell me what happened."

"My boyfriend is missing…" she started sniffing.

Stella fought hard to suppress a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, we know. You already told us, remember?"

"No, not Steve!" came the excited reply.

Stella frowned. "There's … another boyfriend?"

"Steve is not my boyfriend anymore. We broke up when we found out that we had been related in our former lives. You can't have a relationship with your brother, right?" Sally expectantly looked over to Stella who had a hard time to keep her composure.

"No, of course not," she seriously returned with a wrinkled forehead.

Sally nodded.

"Randy is my boyfriend now. He joined our group a couple of months ago."

Stella glanced over to Danny.

"Also a Santa?" she carefully asked Sally who nodded in confirmation.

Stella took a deep breath and let it out again very slowly, counting backward from ten to zero.

Only Danny noticed – and instinctively moved a few inches away - and Mac who was still waiting and watching from behind the mirrored glass wall. He grinned, glad that she couldn't see him right now and also that he didn't have to deal with the hyperactive little elf in the interrogation room any longer than he did. At the same time he was secretly hoping that Danny's presence would keep Stella from choking her. With a smile on his lips, he returned to his office.

_It's gonna be a white, white Christmas  
A miracle of light, this Christmas  
'Cause that's what you are, my shining star  
To bring the joy of Christmas to my heart_

XXXXX

"Wow, this is so great… I feel like Christmas!" Hawkes excitedly exclaimed when he followed Lindsay into the hallway of a well-known record company earlier the same morning.

"Legends have been made here! The biggest stars of Hip-Hop and Dance music go in and out here…" he expectantly looked around to see if he could spot any famous faces.

Much to his disappointment there was not a single one in sight. Instead he saw Flack approaching them, a beautiful yet pretty nervous black woman at his side.

"Ah, Flack!" Lindsay turned to him, glad that they could focus on work now since she wasn't much into either Hip-Hop or Dance music and thus couldn't share any of Hawkes excitement about these 'holy grounds'.

"What happened?"

"This is Arlene Jefferson, the secretary of the company's president. She called us earlier to report a burglary. Miss Jefferson, this is Detective Lindsay Monroe, this is Dr. Sheldon Hawkes. They are with the crime lab, why don't you tell them what you told me?" Flack nodded at the woman who nervously looked at him, then at the two CSIs.

"When I came to work this morning," she started with a trembling voice, "everything seemed to be normal. I went upstairs to my office, turned on the computer and the coffee machine, like every day. Then I went next door to Mr. Fielding's office. I open the windows every morning before he arrives. And then…" she paused, giving Flack a questioning look which he returned with another comforting nod.

"… then I noticed that the golden records at his wall were missing."

_We are here about some missing golden records??_ Lindsay silently wondered. _This is ridiculous, that's something for patrol officers, not for CSI…_

Flack noticed her look.

"Miss Jefferson called the police and the officers checked the scene. When they asked about possible ways out, Miss Jefferson showed them the elevator and the staircase. After further questioning, she remembered the old fire exit which hadn't been used in years. The officers went to check it and… well, check it out yourself, otherwise you won't believe me anyway."

Lindsay wondered even more. At this time of the season New York and its citizens seemed to get even more strange than they were usually, especially if you were a country lass. She followed Flack along the corridor while Hawkes smiled at Arlene Jefferson and continued interviewing her.

"Was the door locked when you arrived in the morning?" he asked her.

"Yes. All doors are locked overnight, mine and also the door from my office to Mr. Fielding's."

"Are you the only one who has a key besides him?"

"The doorman should have a spare key, just in case of emergency. It should be in the safe downstairs, in the room behind the doorman's counter in the lobby."

"Thanks, we will check that later. Did you notice anything this morning, any unfamiliar faces in the lobby, suspicious people in front of the building, anything in the hallway or at the doors when you arrived?" Hawkes continued asking in a calm and comforting tone.

Arlene Jefferson shook her head. "Nothing. Everything was normal, nothing was damaged or disturbed. Just the records had been taken off the wall and…"

Hawkes' beeper went off. He took it from his belt and looked at the display.

"Can I leave you alone for a moment, my colleagues need me out there?"

"Sure, I'm okay…" she quietly replied.

Hawkes nodded and smiled at her again. "Just don't touch anything in here, we still need to process the room, dust for prints etc. Do you have a break room where you can wait for us?"

She nodded while Hawkes turned around and left the office. Out in the corridor, he looked around in search for Lindsay and Flack.

"Where are you guys?"

"Over here!" Lindsay's voice came from around the corner at the very end of the corridor to his right.

He followed the call and finally found them leaning over something that was lying in a little storeroom opposite the door to the old fire exit. When he got closer, he paused in surprise.

"Elvis lives, huh?"

"Well, not anymore..." Lindsay replied with a look at the wound at the man's forehead.

"Blunt force trauma… No further visible wounds, COD might be impact against the skull with some heavy object or…" Hawkes started to examine the victim.

"I found blood at the wall next to the fire exit," Flack reported coming out of the door at the other side of the corridor.

"At least he was in there – and then someone must have dragged him across the corridor and dumped him in this storeroom. That's how the officers found him, they noticed the drag marks on the floor," he pointed to some marks on the carpet that were leading from the door to the storeroom.

"What's he doing here anyway? This is not Vegas…" Lindsay was still convinced that New York around Christmas was a very strange place.

"Maybe he decided that Broadway was the better place?" Flack guessed.

"Great…"

XXXXX

_And when the snowflakes fall down from the sky  
We'll make snow angels, both you and I  
I know that it's true  
I wanna spend this Christmas with you  
_

_  
_Stella was more than annoyed. She was hoping for a little private time with Mac in his office, something that had become a tradition over the past years when they were both working on Christmas. They would sit down, have something to drink and talk a little or just sit there and say nothing. She liked the atmosphere of those moments, it was something that made up for being around on a day like today.

Instead, for the second time this day she and Danny had to drive out through the maniacal traffic and if that wouldn't have been enough, it had started snowing again and she still didn't really know why they were out here again.

XXXXX

This time, Sally had told them that another musician wanted to meet them at their corner for lunch. They wanted to play together to increase profit. Sally had been waiting there after her visit at the precinct, but the other guy didn't show up. Now she was worried that something had happened to him, too. Stella was more than convinced that all those guys had a reason for disappearing – and in her opinion, the reason was pretty obvious…

Thinking about all this, she returned from the bistro were she had bought something to eat for Danny and herself.

_Danny? Where the hell is he?_

Stella looked around, the place at the corner where she had left him was empty.

_This is just great…_

She walked around the corner – nothing.

"DANNY!?!? Where are you? Damn it, come out here, I'm not in the mood for this…"

"Did you lose your little boy?" an older lady who just walked by asked her gently. Stella gave her a surprised look.

"Yeah, like that… Actually he's my colleague and I'm sure he'll be back in a moment," she smiled.

The old lady nodded. "Merry Christmas!"

"Yeah, merry Christmas to you, too."

Stella sighed. Now she was standing all alone in the middle of New York traffic at lunch time, two bags with food in her hands and not a trace of Danny.

_Damn it! Can't even leave a guy alone for three minutes without having them disappear…_

She looked around again and suddenly spotted Lindsay and Flack on the other side of the street. When she saw they were looking in her direction, she waved.

TBC

XXXXX


	3. Chapter 3

Okay, since there wasn't that much response to the second chapter, I figured I can either stop – or better post the next one quickly, so that we get to the better parts. Sorry, but I had to go through the case first and I needed Mac to be out of it to make this chapter work ;-)

Next one is the final one, will have some more StellaMac fluffy stuff

xPROMISEx

and I'm already working on a little one shot "fluff-only" sequel…

Please read and review – thanks!

Chapter 3

"What are you two doing here and where's Hawkes, wasn't he with you?" she asked Lindsay after she came over to her.

"Investigating a burglary with some stolen golden discs…"

Stella's eyebrows raised - another 'exciting' crime for the CSI…

"…and a homicide. Hawkes got occupied with the secretary … uh, eyewitness," Lindsay explained.

"Homicide? Nice… How comes you get to investigate a homicide while Danny and I are chasing Santa Clauses and Elvis?" Stella grumbled.

Lindsay wrinkled her forehead and tried to get all the information in order.

"Well, the homicide was a coincidence – there was the burglary and when the patrol unit checked the scene, they discovered the body in a storeroom. What was it what you said about Elvis? And where is Danny anyway??"

"That's what I'd like to know myself. Just left him for a couple of minutes to grab some food and when I came back, he was gone. Oh, and Elvis – you're not gonna believe this: First we were called because some street musician dressed as Santa was missing, his girlfriend called us. Then she showed up again couple of hours later, another boyfriend Santa was missing, too. And then she called an hour after she left the precinct to tell us that a musician they wanted to meet with, this one dressed like Elvis, didn't show up. This city is just crazy…"

"Well, maybe not…" Lindsay slowly returned.

"How's that?"

"I think we may have found your missing Elvis…"

"WHAT?" For a moment Stella forgot about Danny and how ridiculous she thought this whole day was.

"Our DOA…" Lindsay started.

"Yeah?"

"… dressed in an Elvis costume. Crime scene's just across the street, building of the record company over there," she motioned across the street.

Stella rolled her eyes. Should it be possible that this whole nonsense made some sense after all?

"And what about Hawkes and a secretary?" she tried to match the last piece of the puzzle of weird facts.

"Ah, that's just the woman who reported the theft in the first place. Secretary of the company's president, seems to be pretty impressed by our Dr. Sheldon…" Flack joked.

"Figures."

Apparently this was a piece that didn't need to be in the complete picture.

"Um, right… and where's Danny now?" Lindsay reminded her.

"Right, Danny!" Stella remembered suddenly. "He's gone…"

"What do you mean with that?" Flack wondered.

"Which part of the sentence do you have a problem with?" Stella snapped. "I already told you that I bought something for lunch for us and when I came back moments later, he wasn't here anymore…"

"Did you try his cell?" Lindsay asked.

"Not yet, I just returned and when I looked around here, I saw you guys over there…"

Lindsay flipped her cell phone open and dialed Danny's number.

XXXXX

"Messer, where are you? Everyone's looking for you. … Me? I'm here with Stella and Flack at the corner where you were supposed to be waiting for her. … We've been investigating a scene on the other side of the street and met her by coincidence. What happened? … Yeah, I see. Okay, bye, Danny."

She hung up.

"What? What did he say??" Stella asked curiously.

Lindsay slightly shook her head. Then she looked upwards and pointed in the same direction. Stella followed her gaze – and spotted Danny looking out of a window on the fifth floor of the building they were standing next to, waving down with a sheepish grin on his face.

"What the hell are you doing up there?" Stella called up to him.

"Guess I just solved our case, well, at least half of it. Found two Santas up here," Danny called back, moving a little to the side to free some space for two guys dressed in Santa costumes who now also waved to them.

"I don't get this… Get down here!" Stella shouted.

"Can't – we're locked in here!"

"Locked? How… Ah, never mind. Flack, would you come with me? Lindsay, you wanna wait here for Hawkes or do you think he won't come any time soon?"

Lindsay gave a wondering look to the building across the street, when she saw Hawkes coming through the entrance door.

"We'll wait here for you – promise!" she added after getting a suspicious look from Stella.

XXXXX

"You never get what just happened in there…" Hawkes breathlessly started when he reached Lindsay. "Where did the others go?"

"Rescuing Danny and some Santas," Lindsay explained, causing a puzzled look on his face. "So what happened, she invite you for dinner?"

"Clayton Fielding arrived shortly after you left and without even taking notice of me, he started to shout at his secretary. What the hell she was thinking, calling the police over those dumb records and so on. He got so upset, he fired her!"

"What?" Lindsay couldn't believe it. "He fired his secretary for calling the police to report a burglary, this doesn't make sense. Why would he do that? Unless…" she started to wonder.

"… he has something to hide," Hawkes finished her thought. "Exactly."

"Ah, there are the others! What's going on here?" Lindsay asked when she saw Stella and Danny coming out of the building, accompanied by the two missing Santas.

"I solved our case!" Danny announced with a broad grin. "And yours also."

"Sure you did," Lindsay dryly replied and looked at Stella who just shrugged.

XXXXX

"That was really the most exciting field experience I had ever since I started working as a CSI," Hawkes excitedly told Mac when they met in his office later. "Legends have been in those corridors, music history has been made there… I met Buster Jay on my way out!"

Mac gave him a baffled glance. "Who??"

"Oh come on, Mac?!" Hawkes waited for a sign that he was just kidding. "You don't know him? That's the hottest stuff out on the streets at the moment, on which planet do you live? How comes you never heard of him??"

Stella grinned knowingly.

"Mac's musical focus is more on Gerry Mulligan, Stevie Ray Vaughan and others like that."

Now Hawkes had a question mark on his forehead. "Who?"

"Two worlds collide…" she chuckled.

Mac shook his head, this was really not his world.

"There you are, let's get started now," he said as Lindsay, Danny and Flack entered the office. "Anyone care to tell me what happened?"

Everyone except for Stella started talking at once while Mac tried to follow and get the important information which wasn't really easy. All he knew from earlier this day was that it was something about missing Santas and a burglary. Why the entire team plus Flack was now involved in this at the same time was yet beyond his ken.

XXXXX

"Mr. Fielding arrived after the others had already left," Hawkes just said.

"He's a Santa?" Mac tried to figure out, trying to get a structure into all this.

"No, but you should see his secretary!" Danny teased with a wink to Hawkes.

"She's a Santa?" Mac asked.

"No, she gave us the hint with the doorman," Lindsay explained.

"The doorman's a Santa?" Mac slowly asked.

"No, he's the author of the songs that got the golden records that had been stolen," Danny replied.

_Author of golden records?_ For a moment Mac lost track.

"The author is a Santa?" he frowned.

"No, he stole the records and when the patrol unit arrived at the scene, they found a dead Elvis on the same floor," Flack explained in a self-evident voice.

Mac was confused. At the beginning of the day, he had sent Stella and Danny out to look for ONE missing Santa – and now there were four people in his office, all talking at the same time, throwing names and events at him that he couldn't put to a useful context.

Who was this Elvis? What happened to the Santas? Why were Stella and Danny involved in the record company case? Why were Lindsay and Hawkes involved in the Santa case? Or weren't they? Were they reporting two parallel cases to him at the same time? Nobody mentioned the original main subject of the case at all yet – but he didn't dare asking, he was afraid that more names would be involved.

"Okay, that's it. Stop it!" he called while shaking his head and turned to Stella who was the only one who didn't say a word so far.

"Does this make any sense to you?" he asked desperately.

"I'm afraid so..." she nodded slightly amused.

"Okay..." he checked his watch. "You got 60 seconds to explain it to me."

The others looked at their watches unbelievingly, wondering how that should work while Stella calmly waited for a sign a sign to begin.

"Go!" Mac invited her to start.

"Mr. Fielding is the president of the record company. He stole the rights for a song from Graham Wilson many years ago. The song became a big hit and got awarded several golden records. Graham Wilson applied incognito for a job as doorman at the record company to get access to the master keys for the offices. Then he stole the golden records to blackmail Fielding. He wanted him to acknowledge his fraud publicly. Fielding's secretary called the police when she noticed the robbery. When the patrol unit arrived and searched the scene, they found a dead body on the same floor – dressed in an Elvis costume. Fielding had killed him accidentally. He suspected him to be the thief after he found the blackmail letter on his desk. Collateral damage. The Santas got kidnapped by Graham Wilson because they had recognized him on the street and he wanted to protect his identity. Summary: Graham Wilson stole the records and kidnapped the Santas, Clayton Fielding killed Elvis – two cases closed."

Mac stopped his watch and checked the time. Then he looked up at the others.

"45 seconds," he stated.

"See? Less is more. THAT'S how you give a report!"

_You'll be my angel in the night  
You'll be the one to make things right   
You'll be my one and only shining star… so bright_

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

Okay, here's the last chapter for this story – but as I promised, there's going to be a sequel that I'm currently working on. That one will be pretty fluffy ;-) I hope to be able to post it between Christmas and New Years, but my internet at home is refusing cooperation right now, so it may have to wait till beginning of next year. Keep watching out for it!

Thanks for the reviews – please read and review again.

Parts in _Italics_ are again from the song "White White Christmas" by Jane Comerford (see introduction chapter 1).

Chapter 4

"Got a little confused by all the Santas?" Stella solicitously joked.

"I just think they all look the same with those costumes and beards…"

"I think the beards make them look cute, well, most of them," she returned.

Mac looked pensive for a moment.

"You think I should grow a beard?" he wondered without second thoughts, seriously thinking about a little change.

"I don't know. It's not nice to kiss someone with a beard. That itches and scratches," Stella, on her way out of the room replied without thinking about it.

Danny looked up in surprise, first after Stella, then over to Mac.

"Um... Can you tell me why the first thing she automatically comes up with would be kissing instead of maybe saying it wouldn't suit you or so? Okay, okay, none of my business, got it. C'mon, Montana…" he hastily grabbed Lindsay's arm and pushed her out of Mac's office.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked when they were around the corner where Mac couldn't see them while she freed herself from Danny's grip.

"Don't you notice what's going on here?" he asked, looking back at Mac's office.

"What?" she frowned.

"Mac. Stella. Mac AND Stella. Christmas spirit is spreading its wings… I got an idea, come with me!" he announced, heading off to the elevator.

Lindsay tried to follow his thoughts – without success – and decided that it would be better to check on him, whatever he was planning.

XXXXX

Around 7 p.m.

Mac was on the way to his office when he spotted Stella at her desk. After a short moment, he decided to go in.

"Still working?" No reaction. "Did you already eat?"

"Dinner?" she asked back.

"Dinner, lunch, breakfast... anything at all?"

She looked at him as if he had come from Mars.

"Anything today?" he tried to figure out. Still no reaction.

"This week?" he went on. Nothing.

"Recently?" Still no reply.

"Okay, that's it!" he stated. "Put whatever you were doing away, you're coming with me now and I'll get you something to eat," he firmly ordered.

Stella tried a weak protest.

"I'm responsible for the lab and the staff and I can't let you starve in here..." Mac explained in full seriousness. "Do you have any idea what a torturous questioning I would have to go through if they find you in here later and I didn't do anything about it? And besides – it's Christmas Eve and the shift is over!"

Finally she got up with a sigh and followed him to his office.

"Where are we going?"

"Wait a second…" he mumbled while he reached for his desk drawer. For a second he wished he could just hide there behind his desk, but he knew Stella was watching him, so he had to come out again anyway. He blinked a little abashed.

"I got something for you…"

Stella looked surprised when he handed her the little red box. On the outside of it she read _"Thanks for being there"_, in white letters, along with two little hearts.

She gave him a questioning look which he returned with an encouraging nod.

"There's also something in it," he smiled.

With trembling fingers, she carefully opened the cover and revealed a little angel. She picked it with two fingers and watched it closely. It had bright green eyes and … brown curls. A shiver ran down her spine.

"Thanks, Mac…" she whispered with a lump in her throat, trying to fight back the tears that wanted to come. "This is … beautiful…"

_(spoken)  
Christmas is a special time for peace and harmony  
I feel the joy of giving deep inside of me  
The biggest wish that's on my list  
I've placed beneath the tree  
Is that you come and spend_

_This Christmas time with me  
_

XXXXX

Before he could think about how to move on from there, Stella got up and walked to the door.

"Would you excuse me for a second, I gotta go to the Ladies' room…" she mumbled after she figured that she didn't have a tissue in her pockets.

Mac got up as well and was just about to open the door for her, when he saw Lindsay and Danny coming along the corridor.

"Hey, look..." Lindsay gestured to the doorframe above them. "You're standing under the mistletoe..."

Mac followed her gaze and frowned. With an inquiring look around he asked "Who put that up there??"

Everyone pretended to look somewhere else. Finally he looked at Stella.

"Hey! Don't look at me..." she protested.

"Come on, Mac," Danny insisted. "It's tradition, you can't sneak out of this!"

He and Lindsay looked expectantly at Mac, while Stella felt a bit uncomfortable, yet still pretty amused. And excited…

What if he decided to play along? Would he really kiss her? Or should she help him out and kiss him on the cheek?

Mac stared down at her for a moment, their bodies just inches from touching... their eyes locked to each other.

"Merry Christmas, Mac..." Stella softly breathed and gave him a soft and quick kiss on the lips before he could do anything about it.

Both of them felt the electricity deriving from this short moment and before he could even think about what he was doing, he pulled her back into his arms and kissed her back, totally forgetting that they were not alone.

Lindsay grabbed Danny's arm and pulled him away from the door.

XXXXX

"I think we should take a cab and leave the cars here, hum?" Stella giggled, more tipsy from the intensity of his kiss than from the small amount of eggnog they had drank together before.

"Stella?"

"Yeah?" she looked at him.

"You look like a little puppy, you know that?" she smiled when she noticed his questioning look.

"If I follow you home, will you keep me?" he grinned on her comment.

She tilted her head and gave him a pensive look.

"I mean… I thought, you know – if you don't have plans, I thought we could maybe…"

"No! No, I don't… But, um, my place is pretty deserted. No Christmas atmosphere there…" Stella tried to help him out.

Mac thought for a moment, wondering if she had just really affirmed his unspoken question. Then he had an idea. He unplugged the little tree that Stella had placed in his office and put it in a box he found behind the closet. Then he walked over to the door, picked the mistletoe from the doorframe and put it in the box with the tree.

"Ready to go!" he announced with a smile. He gently put his arm around her shoulders and led her to the elevator.

XXXXX

"See? I told you it would work…" Danny whispered to Lindsay as they watched them leave together.

_It's gonna be a white, white Christmas  
A starry night so bright this Christmas  
That twinkling light  
To light up the night  
_

_To be with you at Christmas feels so right_

The End


End file.
